Former President Daniel Mark Fogel

Fogel - Statement to UVM Community on UK Boycott of Israeli Universities and Scholars Aug 21_07

To: University of Vermont Community

From: Daniel Mark Fogel, President

Re: Statement to UVM Community on UK Boycott of Israeli Universities and Scholars

Date: August 21, 2007

I recently joined 286 college and university presidents and chancellors who
committed to applying to their campuses a statement by President Lee Bollinger
of Columbia University that decries the boycott of Israeli academic institutions
and scholars by a labor union that represents some 120,000 college teachers
in the United Kingdom. Here is President Bollinger’s statement, into which
I have inserted UVM in place of Columbia:

As a citizen, I am profoundly disturbed by the recent vote by Britain's
new University and College Union to advance a boycott against Israeli academic
institutions. As a university professor and president, I find this idea utterly
antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy, where we will not hold
intellectual exchange hostage to the political disagreements of the moment.
In seeking to quarantine Israeli universities and scholars this vote threatens
every university committed to fostering scholarly and cultural exchanges that
lead to enlightenment, empathy, and a much-needed international marketplace
of ideas.

At the University of Vermont I am proud to say that we embrace Israeli scholars
and universities that the UCU is now all too eager to isolate – as we
embrace scholars from many countries regardless of divergent views on their
government's policies. Therefore, if the British UCU is intent on pursuing
its deeply misguided policy, then it should add UVM to its boycott list, for
we do not intend to draw distinctions between our mission and that of the
universities you are seeking to punish. Boycott us, then, for we gladly stand
together with our many colleagues in British, American and Israeli universities
against such intellectually shoddy and politically biased attempts to hijack
the central mission of higher education.

Many thanks to President Bollinger for the eloquence we have borrowed from
him to support the cause of academic freedom—of keeping the academy open
to unfettered scientific exchange, scholarly communication, and creative expression,
and to all members of the UVM community whom I hope join us without reservation
in this commitment.